179 - $6.5B for a Designer? OpenAI’s Wildest Move Yet, with Liz Knopf Artwork

Nikonomics - The Economics of Small Business

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Nikonomics - The Economics of Small Business

179 - $6.5B for a Designer? OpenAI’s Wildest Move Yet, with Liz Knopf

May 28, 2025 • Nikolas Hulewsky • Season 1 • Episode 179

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In this week’s convo with Liz, we unpacked the AI news that should’ve broken the internet:

🔹 $6.5B for Johnny Ive?!
OpenAI “acquires” the legendary Apple designer’s agency in a full stock deal. No one knows what they’re building, but it’s probably wearable, creepy, and context-aware—and it’s a flex timed perfectly to steal headlines from Google I/O.

🔹 Google’s comeback attempt
They’re finally rolling out AI-native search with ads—and it’s a big deal. $60B+ of ad revenue is on the line. We dig into what’s launching, how to use tools like Gemini, Flow, and VO, and why Google still feels like 27 startups duct-taped together.

🔹 VO3 is insane
AI-generated video so good, you can’t tell it’s fake. We demo what it can do (photo-realistic balloon animals discussing AI??) and debate if it’s ready for real ad production.

🔹 Energy is the real bottleneck
You want AGI? You better build power plants. Liz drops a chart that shows how far ahead China is in electricity generation—and why AI’s future might be limited by kilowatts, not compute.

🔹 Trades are about to boom
If you can build a data center, wire a panel, or install cooling systems, the AI wave might make you rich. We riff on counterculture investments, labor shortages, and why electricians may beat coders in the next economy.

🔹 The privacy backlash is coming
We debate whether AI wearables will be a privacy nightmare—or the best documentation tool ever (think body cams for healthcare). Liz shares surprising data that body cams reduced lawsuits. Mind blown.

🔹 Bonus: Anthropic teaser
We didn’t even get to it—but next week we’re diving into Claude, Model Context Protocol, and tools normal people can use without needing a CS degree.

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This week we covered:

00:00 The Acquisition of Johnny Ive by OpenAI

05:10 The Future of AI and Wearable Technology